SI 597/697 Community Information: Project Corps

Professor Paul Resnick

Fall 1999

Revised 10/25/99 (PR).

Syllabus

Meets Thursdays 5-6:30PM in 311 West Hall
Class home page
Project listings

Participation in this course makes you a member of the SI Community Information Corps.

This course has two components:

(required) Reading, reflection, and social networking (1 credit; 0 PEP points)
(optional) Supervised project experiences (0-3 credits; 0-3 PEP points). Each 4 hours per week of project work (60 hours per semester) entitles you to sign up for 1 credit hour of 597/697. Students may choose other venues for their project experiences, including DFEs or independent study with SI professors.

For example, if you were planning to do 8 hours of project work per week, that would be 2 credits of project work (and hence 2 PEP points). You would sign up for 3 credits in all.

Most of this syllabus describes the first component of the course. (For information about potential fall projects, click here.) Students will read about and discuss theories of community, civil society, and the role of the non-profit sector, and draw connections with their project work (reading and reflection). There will also be frequent opportunities to meet some of the national leaders of the community information movement (social networking) and possibly travel to relevant conferences and workshops. At the end of this course, students who are interested in pursuing careers in the community information movement should know how to begin a job search in this area.

You are encouraged to participate for multiple semesters (even all four semesters of the master's program); while we'll keep revisiting similar themes, there will be minimal overlap in the readings and activities.

The first day of each semester will be a project-fest, where faculty announce project opportunities and try to recruit you to join the projects.

Pre-requisites

Students who have completed SI501 should register for this course as SI697. Other students should register for this course as SI597.

Objectives

After participating in SI 597-697, you should be able to:

connect day-day grassroots activities with big ideas about how society should be organized
find a job in various sectors of the community information movement

Readings

A course pack is now or will soon be available at Dollar Bill Copying, on Church Street, just south of South University. You will need to read materials before class so that we can have lively discussion (see reaction paper assignments below).

Assignments and Due Dates

24 hours before each class where readings or web sites will be discussed, hand in 1-page reaction paper (via email)
week after each guest, hand in 1-page reaction to the visitor and class discussion
prepare an on-line guide to job hunting in some area of the community information movement (this will be a joint effort with other students in the course who choose the same area you do.) This guide should include information about conferences, publications, mailing lists, and places where jobs are posted. It is due by the end of the semester, December 9, but feel free to do it earlier. If you find a conference that's worth going to that and that you think will help you in assessing job prospects, you can ask me for travel funds.

If you're signed up for project work through this class, you will have additional assignments:

individual five-page reflection paper at the end of semester connecting your project experiences to the big ideas discussed in class.
group project report for your project clients and partners, as appropriate
group oral report in class at the end of the semester

Grading

If you make a consistent, serious effort, you should get an A in this class.

Office Hours

Mondays and Thursdays 4-5 PM, and by appointment

presnick@umich.edu

647-9458

314 West Hall

Session Schedule

Date	Topic	Guests	Readings (read before class)
Sep 9	Introductions of people and projects	SI faculty; Karen Jordan	none
Sep 16	The Digital Divide; civic engagement		1999 NTIA report on the Digital Divide Putnam, R. (1995). “Bowling Alone.” Journal of Democracy 6(1): 65-78.
Sep 18	Dinner Party at Professor Resnick's house, 5-8PM.
Sep 23	The roles of non-profit organizations		Lester M. Salamon. Holding the Center: America's Nonprofit Sector at a Crossroads. Nathan Cummings Foundation report.
Sep 30	The roles of citizens		Boyte, H. C. and N. N. Kari (1996). Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work. Philadelphia, Temple University Press. pp.1-32,164-178
Oct 6, 3-4:30PM	Community Media Developments Worldwide	Dirk Koning (SI-wide event)
Oct. 7	youth programming at Community Technology Centers	Professor Yang Zhao, MSU School of Education	MSU klubhouses manual; excerpts from Public Achievement manual
Oct 14	What is community?		Etzioni, A. (1993). The Spirit of Community: The Reinvention of American Society. New York, Simon and Schuster. pp. 1-53.
Oct 21	Local information portals	John Bebow, MLive; Prof. Joan Durrance	Visit Web sites: www.mlive.com trfn.clpgh.org/ (Pittsburgh non-profit community net) www.citysearch.com www.koz.com http://www.si.umich.edu/helpseek/profiles/index.html
Oct 28	Non-profit portals	Jillaine Smith, Benton Foundation Communications Policy and Practice program	Visit web sites: Benton's Best Practices Toolkit Community Connector Independent Sector idealist.org AOL's portal (URL to be announced this fall)
Nov 4	Public participation in politics	Doug Ross	TBA
Nov 11	Social Capital		Coleman, J. S. (1988). “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.” American Journal of Sociology 94(Supplement): S95-S120.
Nov 17	Community Organizing	informal lunch with Social Work students from the "Community Organizing" class	none
Nov 18	Collective action		Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: the Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp.1-28.
Dec 2	Tech support for Non-profits	Deborah Bey	Final report on the National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology
Dec 9	Project reports II

Date	Topic	Guests	Assignments
Jan 6	Introductions of people and projects	SI faculty; Karen Jordan	none
Jan 13	Native American telecom
Jan 20	The roles of citizens		Walzer, M. (1998). The Idea of Civil Society: A Path to Social Reconstruction. Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America. E. J. Dionne. Washington, DC, Brookings Institution: 123-143.
Jan 27	Public history and cultural heritage
Feb 3	Non-profits and technology	Joines or Brotsky?	Final report on the National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology
Feb 10	Social Capital: Weak Ties		Granovetter, M. S. (1973). “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 78(6): 1360-1380.
Feb 17	Universal Service: communications policy	Schement?
Feb 24	CTCs and Telecenters	Cogburn
March 9	Deliberative democracy		Habermas? Federalist papers excerpt?; MN e-democracy site;
March 16	Civic Engagement		Putnam book (excerpts)
March 23	Community/Public Interest Research	Loka visitor?	Loka report
March 30	Civic Practices	Carmen Sirianni?	excerpts from www.cpn.org
April 6	Project reports I
April 13	Project reports II

The roles of professionals?